| Author | Message | ||
| Walter Durk
Intermediate Member Username: summerguy2007 Post Number: 676 Registered: 10-2007 |
Natasha Trethewey was born in Gulfport, Mississippi, in 1966. She earned an M.A. in poetry from Hollins University and M.F.A. in poetry from the University of Massachusetts. Her first collection of poetry, Domestic Work (2000), was selected by Rita Dove as the winner of the inaugural Cave Canem Poetry Prize for the best first book by an African American poet and won both the 2001 Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Book Prize and the 2001 Lillian Smith Award for Poetry. Since then, she has published two more collections of poetry, including Native Guard (Houghton Mifflin, 2006), which received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, and Bellocq's Ophelia (2002). Her work has appeared in Agni, The American Poetry Review, The Best American Poetry, Callaloo, Gettysburg Review, The Massachusetts Review, New England Review, North American Review, and The Southern Review, among other magazines and anthologies. In her introduction to Domestic Work, Rita Dove said, "Trethewey eschews the Polaroid instant, choosing to render the unsuspecting yearnings and tremulous hopes that accompany our most private thoughts—reclaiming for us that interior life where the true self flourishes and to which we return, in solitary reverie, for strength." Trethewey's honors include the Bunting Fellowship from the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the Rockefeller Foundation. She is Professor of English at Emory University where she holds the Phillis Wheatley Distinguished Chair in Poetry. "Monument." Today the ants are busy beside my front steps, weaving in and out of the hill they're building. I watch them emerge and-- like everything I've forgotten -- disappear into the subterranean, a world made by displacement. In the cemetery last June, I circled, lost -- weeds and grass grown up all around -- the landscape blurred and waving. At my mother's grave, ants streamed in and out like arteries, a tiny hill rising above her untended plot. Bit by bit, red dirt piled up, spread like a rash on the grass; I watched a long time the ants' determined work, how they brought up soil of which she will be part, and piled it before me. Believe me when I say I've tried not to begrudge them their industry, this reminder of what I haven't done. Even now, the mound is a blister on my heart, a red and humming swarm. Copyright © 1997 - 2008 by The Academy of American Poets. Copyright ©1996-2008 MacNeil/Lehrer Productions. All Rights Reserved. All that is personal soon rots unless it is packed in ice and salt. -- Yeats | ||
| ~M~
Board Administrator Username: mjm Post Number: 29447 Registered: 11-1998 |
Dearest Walter -- thanks for posting this introduction to Natasha Trethewey and her work. I had not heard her name before, but it sounds as though I should have. And it sounds as though I have another great poet to add to the BookShop listings. Much appreciated! Love, M | ||
| Walter Durk
Intermediate Member Username: summerguy2007 Post Number: 677 Registered: 10-2007 |
M, you are welcome, and thanks for putting up with me. All that is personal soon rots unless it is packed in ice and salt. -- Yeats | ||
| Fred Longworth
Senior Member Username: sandiegopoet Post Number: 3761 Registered: 05-2006 |
I met her briefly at the Idyllwild Poetry Festival five years ago. http://www.creativewriting.emory.edu/faculty/trethewey.html Thanks for posting that poem, Walter. Very moving. Fred Unofficial Forum Pariah recent victim of alien abduction | ||
| nia sunset
Advanced Member Username: nia Post Number: 1376 Registered: 04-2006 |
Hi Walter, How nice to meet with a new poet. You are one of my poets in here, so your advise or your introduction is so precious for me. Last night I began to read "Natasha Trethewey". How beautiful poetical spirit she has and how nicely expressed. How beautiful, from "Letter Home" ......So now, even as I write this and think of you at home, Goodbye is the waving map of your palm, is a stone on my tongue. and from this poem, "Theories of Time and Space" the photograph – who you were – will be waiting when you return wonderful poet and I am so glad to meet with her poetry. Thank you Walter, you did great http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/442 with my love, nia  http://www.freewebs.com/butterflywingsofnia/ "Carry the beauties;wash the badnesses with your poetical spirit" | ||
| ~M~
Board Administrator Username: mjm Post Number: 29451 Registered: 11-1998 |
I don't "put up" with you, Walter. I enjoy the individual that you are and am grateful for what you add to our community. If you don't agree with what is done here at Wild in some areas, you have every right to speak up and make your opinions known. Of course, you don't have a right to expect that everyone will hop to and either agree or follow you blindly. *smile* Nor does anyone have the right to be rude, insulting, or inconsiderate. But you are not that. You do have the right to speak your mind and make your voice heard if that voice is respectful of others who also share this space. Which, in my experience, is what you do. So, in that regard, I don't "put up" with you. I listen respectfully and try to take those opinions into consideration. That goes for everyone here at Wild. Love, M | ||
| Fred Longworth
Senior Member Username: sandiegopoet Post Number: 3766 Registered: 05-2006 |
Walter, ~M~ welcomes you with open arms, as she does for all the WPF members, even me -- though sometimes one arm is open and the other wields a flyswatter. However, due to a recent financial downturn, I must take a different course and assess a tolerance fee. 1. $10 a week for unlimited acceptance 2. $5 a week for partial acceptance and some finger-pointing, name-calling and mild pejoratives 3. $1 a week for basic non-acceptance with the usual calumny and libel 4. $0 a week and I'll simply hate you Please send to the address on my WPF profile. NOTE: I accept Pay Pal. Fred * * * * * (Message edited by sandiegopoet on April 15, 2008) Unofficial Forum Pariah recent victim of alien abduction | ||
| ~M~
Board Administrator Username: mjm Post Number: 29465 Registered: 11-1998 |
Hmmmmmm, Freddie. I'm trying to decide between #3 and #4. I figure you already hate me, so why pay for the privilege? And do I really need an upgrade to calumny and libel? Is it worth a buck a week to me (although I must admit calumny and libel can be amusing if taken in the right spirit)? I'll have to think about that some more. It must be that flyswatter thing. It gets me in trouble every time. *LOL* Love, M | ||
| Walter Durk
Intermediate Member Username: summerguy2007 Post Number: 678 Registered: 10-2007 |
I'm glad the information about this poet is worthwhile. She is one of many fine poets. It would be nice to meet her, she looks very nice and thoughtful. She lives a few towns from me here in Georgia. All that is personal soon rots unless it is packed in ice and salt. -- Yeats | ||
| MV
Senior Member Username: michaelv Post Number: 870 Registered: 11-2003 |
Met her twice: 1st time in a workshop, 6 years ago. Then in Dec '06 at a museum reading. A few months later, she receives the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. I can still hear her voice when I read these lines by her.  Michael (MV) | ||
| nia sunset
Advanced Member Username: nia Post Number: 1448 Registered: 04-2006 |
I can still hear her voice when I read these lines by her. this is so nice for a poet,... with my love, nia http://www.freewebs.com/butterflywingsofnia/ "Carry the beauties;wash the badnesses with your poetical spirit" |
